Gold mining pollutes Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, May 29, 2012 (IPS) – Fabian George drank and generally used water from jungle rivers near his mountainside home for decades until world market prices for gold began climbing in recent years.

Now he and other villagers from the Chi Chi District in western Guyana near Venezuela won’t dare drink or bathe in water from the river nearest their tribal Indian community because of the chemical pollution and sedimentation from river and land dredges that local miners and Brazilians are operating in the area.

They, like other tribal communities in the South American nation’s booming “gold bush” sector, are today forced to walk long distances to inland creeks they believe are less polluted to obtain potable drinking water, as traditional sources are laced with sedimentation and mercury tailings from high-technology dredges as well as high- powered pumps and hoses stripping away mud or ore to recover gold.

Guyana: The United Nations Development Programme (UNPD) is providing more than $800,000 (£480,000) to help limit environmental damage as a result of gold-mining activities.
The Natural Resources Ministry said that the money will be used to build dozens of monitoring stations in the jungle and use satellite technology to assess damaged areas.
Local UNPD representative Khadija Musa said the programme also aims to help agencies better co-ordinate oversight of the country’s booming gold industry.